First in the queue to come from the Welsh town are Funeral For A Friend, who release new album Conduit on January 28 and have lined up a long list of live dates that will carry them deep into April.

And hot on their trail are Bullet For My Valentine, whose new collection Temper Temper is out on February 11 to be followed by a mini tour in the middle of March.

What they should have done, of course, is combine forces for a tour called something along the lines of Friendly Funeral For My Bullet-Ridden Valentine, but perhaps the question of top billing proved too thorny.

Conduit is volume six for FFAF and, having drafted in guitarist Gav Burrough and bass player Richard Boucher for 2011’s Welcome Home Armageddon, they continue the turnover by slotting Pat Lundy into the drum seat recently vacated by Ryan Richards.

According to less than tactful front man Matthew Davies-Kreye: “Pat’s the missing piece of the puzzle for us. His attitude and love of playing really brought a new level of excitement to the band; his playing live and on this record really adds a sense of power that we’ve never had. It became apparent that our relationship with each other was the strongest we’ve had in this band since the very first few releases and we knew that was special. We were all pulling for the same thing and we didn’t care what anyone else felt outside of the five of us.”

Davies-Kreye also reckons that his singing contribution is all the better for Richards’s departure. “I didn’t want us to hold back and I really didn’t want to hold myself back in terms of the vocals,” he explains.

“I knew I had to just go for it and try to go for something that was as pure as possible without trying to pretend that I’m filling in for Ryan’s screaming parts. I had to do these songs my own way. That was a big deal to me.”

The title track, by the way, refers to what Davies-Kreye calls “the transcendental act of performing to an audience”.

He adds: ‘‘It’s a major component of what this band is about and even though in the confines of a room, even though we’ve never met there’s this bond between us and the people through the music.”

You can judge for yourself when FFAF hit the road a dates at Birmingham’s Asylum on Tuesday February 19, Northampton’s Roadmender on Saturday. American outfits Such Gold and Major League will supply the support.

Bullet For My Valentine

It’s as you were for BFMV, the long-established quartet back on duty for their fourth studio set which will be preceded by first single Riot on February 3.

The album is produced by Don Gilmore, the man at the helm for 2010’s Fever and highly respected for his work with the likes of Linkin Park and Pearl Jam, and will be available as a deluxe edition that will include bonus track Not Invincible plus live versions of Whole Lotta Rosie and Scream Aim Fire from their session for Radio 1’s Live Lounge.

According to guitarist Michael Paget, fans can expect something “different to what we’ve done before but not crazy different” although the title track, he reckons, is “upbeat and almost, dare I say it, a disco feel”.

“We didn’t want to go back to our original roots we just wanted to continue our progression and we had been vibing off it because we had been living with the Fever album for such a long time. We just thought we would stick with it and just develop a little bit more,” he explains.

“The way that Fever was accepted by everyone as it went down really well and it did exactly what we wanted it to. So it really was an ‘it it’s not broke don’t fix it’ sort of thing.”

Again, the real proof of the pudding will be in the live shows, but at this stage they’ve announced just four dates, kicking off at Birmingham’s O2 Academy on Tuesday, March 12.

Continuing this week’s (entirely unplanned) Welsh theme, Merthyr Tydfil’s The Blackout release new album Start The Party on January 21 before crossing the border to join Sonic Boom Six and Proxies on a package tour that takes in Birmingham’s HMV Institute on Wednesday, January 23.

If you’re not too sure what to expect, vocalist Sean Smith explains: “We’re like the Beastie Boys meets Andrew WK meets Dirty Sanchez and this album captures our real personality – that laryiness, the loud, shouting happy gang that’s all about doing what we want and having a good time.” Who could resist?